Reflections
by RiverCookie
Summary: Post-endgame PMD2, Cresselia muses about her relationship with her dark counterpart.
1. What I've done wrong

I still remember our earliest days.

These days, things are much more quiet. Aside from the petty thieves and little errands that come in a continuous stream, all is peaceful. So I have time to reflect on the past.

We were quiet beings, you and I. There was a reason why our deeds were mostly remembered in myth. And in the myth, there were two. In our silence, we were alike.

Bound by fate and linked by heart, we completed each other's worlds. I was the light that cast your shadow, and you were the darkness that mellowed my light. You were the only one who could ease my solitude among masses...and I was the only one who you had at all.

We both had our place and our purpose, but yours was harder to appreciate than mine. The dark hides what is within, and so it is feared, but you can appreciate when the light illuminates it for you. And so I was loved, and you were shunned.

With this as truth, I should have seen the sadness that began to eat away at your soul.

You shrunk more and more with the passing ages, watching in tensed silence as others laughed and loved without you, watching as they rushed past you to embrace me. Somehow, as the embodiment of illuminating light and as your closest friend, your plight escaped my notice. Or perhaps I did notice, but I paid it no heed. This was how it was, and how it always would be. I would be there for you instead. Wasn't that enough?

It was not. You curled up, coiled up, sprang. Broke.

I saw the blood dripping from your claws then. I saw the rage in your eyes, the despair. I heard your final cry for help.

I was light, and I let you fall into darkness.

...

This I remember, but you do not.

You fled from me for years, and I chased you for years. I shed my joy, shed tears, shed the concept of tears, all in the mad chase after you. In time, all I could think of was the road, and why I was on it. My life was torn down and rebuilt around the desire to find you again, to end your rampage...and to apologize for failing you all those years ago.

But when I finally caught up with you, you met the same fate as the one you once tried to kill. In your madness, you fell into the stream of time and had everything washed away from you, save for your life.

Is that a bad thing? I know my heart aches each time you look at me and see not the dusty days of our years together, but instead a soul you have only begun to know. Sometimes, I wish you could reminisce with me about those happy times. But I know you would also remember the agony and madness. You would remember your hatred of the world. Your hatred of me. You are a blank slate, a clean slate.

Things are a little different this time around. In the past, you suffered in silence and no one was there to listen. This time, you have friends. The ones you once tried to kill, they took you in, gave you a new home and a new purpose, and introduced you to all of their many friends. They came to love you as well, and you are happy now. And the two of us...well...

These days today, they're our earliest days now. The joys we shared in my memory, the smiles we exchanged, they're gone now. All that is left is our present and, with hope, our future. Tomorrow we'll rebuild our lives together.

...Darkrai. I let you slip away the first time around. This time I will keep you, and I will keep you safe.


	2. What you've done right

You seem familiar.

When our eyes meet, I feel as if I've known you for much longer than I have. We're like old friends, except that I can't remember what makes our friendship old.

I also see your guilt.

Who were we to each other before?

I don't remember much. Some very specific feelings of sadness, some memories of smiles with no faces to match them with, voices with no words...and a scream.

Do you know what happened to me?

I've asked you this many times, and you said no every time, turning your face aside. I'm not sure who you're trying to fool. If you won't tell me, though, I won't force you to. I understand the importance of keeping dark secrets hidden. And I know your heart is pure; your dark secret couldn't hurt anyone in its obscurity.

But your guilt...it hurts to see sometimes. Your smile, so radiant, is marred by your uncertainty. You are afraid of me, or at least afraid to be with me. I don't want to intrude, but I wish I knew why you hurt so.

I wish, so that I could tell you with all confidence that it's okay.

You are so kind, so confident, and yet so uncertain of your way. You carry the burden of a failure too great to be spoken of. You act as if you failed me before. As if you're still failing me.

But you're not. You're there for me even when everyone else tires of my presence. You're kind to me even during my darkest moods. You helped me up from the wreckage of my old life and helped me construct a new one.

Whatever we've done wrong before, let us let that fade into the past. This is today. And today, we are together. Today, we are happy.


End file.
